All
Christians have respect and reverence for our Creator.
We can see in His handiwork all the love, beauty, order and majesty He pours
into all that He touches. He is truly magnificent. As Christians, we know
that God loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die as a sacrifice
for us, so that we could live eternally with Him. That is the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. Because of Jesus, we can become a child of God and participate in
His plan for the world. That love and gift is what drives so many Christians
to be excited and joyful, serving Him feverishly and wanting everyone to know
how amazing God is.

There
are, however, other Christians, who don’t exactly share that same joyous
spirit of God, because their faith is based not on love, but FEAR. Yes, there
are many Christians who are AFRAID of God.

For those Christians, there is too much uncertainty, insecurity and ambiguity
about Him. Their fear has overtaken all the goodness and love that God has
poured onto them. Their fear makes them serve God with only one thing in mind,
how to appease a God they don't understand and whose only concern is when
we sin. This fear drives these Christians to distraction trying to save themselves.
Unfortunately, for many Christians, that fear is more a motivator to their
faith than love is. They see God with nervous eyes of fear.

All
Christians, at some point along the way, have heard that we should be afraid
of God, (by many pastors, ministers and churches) and that He will punish
and send to hell all those who are disobedient and not good enough. Because
of the idea in our minds that God absolutely HATES sin, we become obsessed
with our own sin. We know that we are sinners, so we feel guilty. But many
of us are unable to completely turn around our lives, so we are in a constant
state of fear that God will "GET US". We want forgiveness, but believe
God won't grant it to us because we are such failures. Our obsession and failure
convince us that God is frowning.

Many
gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians struggle with God because
of this same issue. We fear that God will not understand us. We have been
told that God punishes sin and if we don’t repent, we will not be saved.
Most all of us have tried to "repent" from our sexuality, but have
found we are still GLBT and now know we cannot change ourselves. Because God
doesn't seem to "DELIVER" us from our sexuality, some of us begin
to doubt God's love. Why would He create us like this, and then condemn us?
This issue alone makes us uncertain of what kind of God we are worshipping.
Many of us have been fooled by Satan (and those religious people who yell
at us) that God doesn’t love us unless we change. For many of us, this
is devastating and confusing. It doesn't seem right. But this confusion is
because many of us still live in fear of God...fear of punishment.

The
irony is that a Christian whose faith is based on fear will never experience
the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace… and will always live in
fear, under a dark cloud, confused, unsure and never joyous because that fear
doesn’t allow God Himself to come in.

Fear
of God manifests itself in so many destructive ways and the longer a Christian
continues this path in fear, ambiguity and uncertainty, the more they will
grow negative, unsure, depressed and bitter towards God.

Not
only are fearful Christians afraid of God, but they are afraid of everything
else. They don’t associate with “sinners” because God may
disapprove. They also fear "contamination" by non-believers. Fearful
Christians don't participate in life, thinking they may engage in “
the ungodly behavior of the world" and be tempted to sin. So they separate
themselves from ordinary life and people. And worst of all, fearful Christians
are afraid of themselves. They fear that their own emotions, desires and behavior
will turn God against them. They punish themselves hoping God will see how
spiritual they are by their self-denial and suffering. Their life is not spent
serving God and loving their neighbors, but spent watching their every move
to keep from making a mistake. It is a non-stop self-centered pursuit. And
even if they do everything they think they need to do…they are still
afraid, because they are not sure what God wants. They worry that it might
not be enough. They distrust God.

Fearful
Christians have no joy or peace, because their fear of God paralyzes them.

We
all sin and can never be perfect, but many of us think that God is not understanding,
and that He doesn’t excuse us no matter what our hearts or what our
motives are. We think all God cares about is sin.

If
you don’t think God understands you then the feeling is mutual, you
don’t understand Him either. When you don’t understand God, then
you can’t trust Him to do the right thing, and if you don’t trust
God, then you are afraid of Him.

You
see, if you fear God and don't trust Him, then you CAN’T LOVE HIM.

YOU
CAN’T TRULY LOVE WHAT YOU ARE AFRAID OF.

It
is impossible.

Some
Christians are so afraid of God that they even suppress their own thoughts
because they fear He knows how they really feel. So they even deny themselves
their own thoughts and feelings. They fear that God will betray them. So they're
not only afraid, but bottled up with years of unresolved emotions, frustrations
and questions. “Am I saved? Does God still love me?”

If
this doesn’t make a person crazy, I don’t know what will.

This
is also why so many Christians become ex-Christians.

Because
they have been falsely indoctrinated to be afraid of God, many drop out of
Christianity all together, because the idea of worshiping a mean-spirited
cold God is too much. They can’t relate to a God they don't understand
and who doesn’t understand them.

Many
Christians think that God is obsessed with sin, but if that were so, why would
He create such an easy way for us to be forgiven of our sin?

Faith
in Jesus Christ.

It
is so simple. We believe and we are saved...our sins are forgiven. And the
reason He has made redemption so easy is because He loves us. He wants to
reconnect with us. He offers salvation to us freely.

He
understands that we fail and He has much patience and grace. Jesus died so
our sins could not keep us from God. All Jesus asks is for us to live in love.
Love God and love our neighbor. (Matthew 22: 37-40) When we love God and love
our neighbor we cannot sin.

And
what is SIN?

Anything
negative that keeps us away from God and our neighbors.
Hate, stealing, envy, prejudice, fear, anger…these are the sins of man
which cause division between God and each other.

But
the good news is God is LOVE.

The
portrait of a cold, scary, stone-faced God is A LIE, spread by Satan to keep
people from coming closer to Him and to render God’s children useless.

For
the person who is afraid of God, his/her prayers are formal. There is a feeling
of distance from God because they cannot feel His presence. That is because
fear is a wall to getting close to God. He doesn't want you to be afraid of
Him. He wants you to love Him.

Those
who understand God to be all love, forgiveness and understanding, accept His
love and experience Him. All of Him. It is those who "fall in love with
God" who are then blessed by the outpouring of His Spirit, and the reality
of the presence and joy of God quickly becomes evident. Opening your heart
in love to God allows the Spirit to come in. His Spirit reveals the true personality
of God.

God
is every good thing that you can ever imagine.
God is not at all like how some Christians have portrayed Him.
And thankfully, God is NOT AT ALL like many of the negative, unloving, judgmental
Christians who claim to follow His ways.

Think
of the kindest, most loving person you have ever known. Now understand that
God is infinitely more loving and kind than any person He has ever created.
How is it, that a human person, created by God, could be kinder than He is?
It is impossible.

Now
understand that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. He is the kindest, compassionate
and the most loving person ever to walk the earth. He
came down to us, to our level…as a man. This shows He does understand
us. He knows what we go through. He knows this life is difficult and full
of pain and struggle. He served us and humbled Himself and then sacrificed
Himself for us. This is not at all the thunderous fearful God that has been
portrayed to us. But
He humbled Himself to live among us and prove His love to us.

Those
who were controlling and harsh were the religious rule followers, the Pharisees
and Sadducees. They were the ones who tried to keep up the image of a controlling,
harsh, and rule following God…but Jesus went against them.

Listen
up my friend. Jesus loves you with all His heart.

God
created you exactly as you are and LOVES YOU!
He knows your heart and everything about you and STILL LOVES YOU!
He also wants the best of you. He wants you to grow, to heal and to love like
He does.

And
though others have told you that your sins will send you to hell, Jesus overcame
sin. He died on the cross for our sin…so we would be free from sin.
We no longer have to be afraid of offending God. Jesus took that offense in
our place. God has proven His love to us.

There
is nothing to be afraid of, because God is love.

God
is true love. God
is eternal love.
Search
your heart
and understand.
You
have nothing to fear.

God
loves you!

We
have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is
love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the
day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves
punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
We love, because He first loved us.